What NASCAR’s version of Drive to Survive needs to get right

When combining the on-track product with Silly Season, the final third of the NASCAR Cup Series campaign is holistically the most compelling motorsports offering in the world.

The challenge for NASCAR and its television partners has always been attraction and retention — getting the masses to sample the show, convincing them to come back, and then staying throughout the remainder of a given season.

Formula 1 Drive to Survive is the crowning achievement of a sanctioning body’s digital marketing strategy in using a Netflix documentary series to showcase the larger than life international personalities, politics and intensity of grand prix competition.

The true triumph of Drive to Survive was that it took a motorsport discipline that isn’t particularly compelling near the front of the field and instead emphasized all the things it does best — exotic locales, midpack intrigue and everything that goes into securing one of just 20 rides at the highest level of global motorsports.

Now it’s NASCAR’s turn to create something just as memorable.  

Over the past two months, camera crews have already started filming content for a Netflix series set to debut in April, with a creative team that includes Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ben Kennedy plus Connor Schell and Libby Geist of The Last Dance documentary.

At face value, there is so much happening right now that would make tremendous fodder for a NASCAR Drive to Survive equivalent.  

• Chase Elliott’s season
• Spire Motorsports’ $65 million investments
• Joey Logano’s elimination
• Martin Truex Jr.’s rollercoaster playoff
• Michael Jordan is everywhere
• Scheduling delays and intrigue
• The still evolving new car

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Stock car racing with its close competition, penchant for contact, and a made for television championship format is tailor made for this kind of spotlight.

The 36 top teams in the discipline race literally every week from February to November. The current format encourages drivers to do whatever it takes to win races, advance in the playoffs and reach the championship race at Phoenix.

The biggest stars aren’t afraid to say politically incorrect things, badmouth each other or the sanctioning body when something happens that leaves them feeling slighted. The economy of the charter system is Formula 1’s Concorde Agreement on a scale with business dealings that reflect it.

NASCAR drivers talk about their version of Drive to Survive

Denny Hamlin says this show needs to go behind the scenes and show all of this in a meaningful way.

“Anytime you can go Inside Baseball for a sport, it’s better,” Hamlin said. “It can certainly to appeal to casuals and the hard cores.”

Joey Logano said his involvement in the show, which will surely include his dramatic…